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Planning commission approves conditional use permit for Weiberg nursery on JBH parcel
Summary
The Eastern Summit County Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit for a nursery on a parcel in the Marion area after staff recommended approval and the applicant and neighbors clarified questions about prior contractor-yard activity.
The Eastern Summit County Planning Commission voted to approve a conditional use permit (CUP) for a proposed nursery on a parcel in the Marion area, allowing the property owner to grow and potentially wholesale plants in the future. The applicant, John Weiberg, addressed commissioner questions and a neighboring resident’s concerns before the commission moved to approve the staff-recommended conditions.
The nursery is proposed on parcel “JBH-5” in the Marion area. Planning staff described the use as a nursery enterprise that may conduct retail or wholesale sales of plants grown on- or off-site and related accessory equipment. The applicant said the operation is intended primarily as a family growing operation and not a retail nursery where the public would come to purchase plants. The application includes a small 30-by-15-foot high-tunnel (about 450 square feet) with no power or gas proposed, and the applicant described plans for two to three Connex containers for equipment storage. Staff noted no exterior lighting or signage is proposed at this time.
A nearby property owner called county staff before the meeting and said they had observed equipment and vehicles on the Weiberg parcel that appeared consistent with a contractor’s yard. Staff recorded that public comment and the applicant told staff that contractor-yard activities and heavy equipment had been removed from the site and relocated to a Browns Canyon yard earlier in the year. At the meeting, applicant John Weiberg repeated that heavy equipment and dump trucks had been moved off the subject parcel and that only a mini excavator and skid loader were used periodically on weekends. Commissioner questions confirmed there is a primary residence and an accessory dwelling unit on the same parcel; staff clarified the CUP would apply only to the portion of the property shown in the site plan.
Neighbor Zach Morley, attending the meeting by Zoom, asked the commission to clarify the timeline for the shift from contractor-yard activity to the nursery use and expressed concern the CUP might be sought retroactively to legitimize earlier operations. Weiberg responded that the contractor-yard operations were moved to Browns Canyon when ordinance changes limited contractor yards in platted subdivisions and that the fenced area on the parcel had been cleared and vegetated for nursery use.
Planning staff recommended approval based on the findings and conditions in the staff report and said they would correct a typographical error in Finding of Fact No. 1 that mistakenly referenced a contractor’s yard instead of a nursery. After commissioners’ questions and public comment, the commission voted to approve the Weiberg Nursery application with the conditions in the staff report.
The commission closed the item and moved to the next agenda item.
